We now live in a connected society more and more people are adapting the Internet for communicating with loved ones. Businesses as well are highly dependent on Email, VOIP and website access to do various business processes. We should now be aware that there are various threats on the computer and security of your data if you are connected on the Internet.

Most people know only about computer viruses but there are far more sinister threats out there that are even more difficult to detect. More concerning are spyware and botnets. Spyware are variants of computer viruses that do not damage your computer but simply gather data from your computer including personal, financial and other confidential data and send them to the author of the spyware. The information can now be used to make fraudalent financial transactions on the Internet.

Botnets are programs that run on your computer that are automated and can be controlled by its author called the bot master. These are usually unwittingly installed by the user who downloads and installs untrusted applications. Once your computer is under control by the bot master, it can be used to propagate more botnets to other computers, or used as a relay for moving stolen information around the world so that it becomes untraceable.

Stealing personal and financial information is a booming underworld business at the expense of ordinary computer users. Users of Windows based computers are most at risk. To protect your computer, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware and a firewall should be installed on your computer. Another option is to convert your computer to Linux as Linux computers are not susceptible to the usual Windows threats.

Note that it is a very bad idea to install pirated anti-virus or any other pirated software because such copies could themselves contain the viruses, spyware and botnets that you are trying to eliminate.